Freedom from Fear

This journal aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and awareness of the international community's priority issues in the field of justice, crime prevention and human rights. The Magazine pursues the promotion of innovative dialogue by spreading awareness, creating consensus and a sense of shared responsibility of the problems that affect the global community. As a forum for long-term change, the Magazine endeavors to promote democratic values, civil stability, and aid the international community in developing actions towards greater peace, justice and security for all members of social, civil and political society.

In this paper we first put ISIS volunteers in context by considering other examples of Americans citizens fighting in someone else’s war. Next we consider poll results indicating that many U.S. Muslims perceive a war on Islam and prejudice against Muslims; at least ten percent of younger U.S. Muslims justify suicide attacks in defense of Islam. Against this background it is perhaps surprising that only a few hundred U.S. Muslims have volunteered to fight in Syria. In the absence of accurate data about U.S. volunteers, we review what has been learned about the thousands of European volunteers for ISIS, many of whom seem to be pushed to action by individual- level mechanisms described by McCauley and Moskalenko in 2011. Finally, we raise doubt about current efforts to criminalize and block would-be volunteers.

The draw for young people to join a terrorist group has never been as strong as it is today. I know because I have spent over a decade interviewing over four hundred terrorists around the world and, in the case of suicide bombers who are already dead, interviewing their family members, close associates and even the hostages they held. My questions always centered on what put these (mostly young) people on the terrorist trajectory. Could their movement along this trajectory have been prevented? Once on the trajectory, could they have been moved back off it by some sort of intervention?

On the one hand, terrorism is the antithesis of communication. It does not aim at transmitting any message to its victims, but at annihilating them. On the other hand, yet, terrorism is extremely powerful communication for those who witness the tragedy, directly or through the media, and are either terrified or fascinated by it.1 Terrorist acts revolutionize the social attitudes of individuals and groups, pushing them to radically change their lifestyles. Those acts instill fear, but can also attract supporters’ admiration. From September 11 on, terrorist jihadist groups have resorted to increasingly sophisticated communication in order to accompany and influence the reception of their violent deeds. Obeying to a global tendency, for jihadists it was not sufficient to perpetrate violence and instigate terror. It was equally fundamental to let the world know that violence had been committed, and what was the appropriate cognitive, emotional, and pragmatic interpretation of it.

Pop-jihad as a lifestyle’, so the Dutch Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism opined, when expressing his worries about the appeal of jihadist symbols to young Europeans.1 Starting in 2012, many thousands Europeans have travelled to join jihadist groups in Syria, in particular the so called Islamic State (aka ISIL or ISIS). Numbers vary from 3,400 to 5,000. By July 2015, from Belgium alone some 440 individuals have gone to the region (included are the 50 or so who never made it to Syria). But looking into the motivations and backgrounds of this relative large group from a small country might help to shed a light on the journey of Westerners to “a country they do not know, in a culture they are not familiar with, and where a language is spoken that they do not understand.”

We remain fascinated by terrorist acts and how seemingly normal people transform into cold-blooded killers. We have certain preconceived notions about who becomes a terrorist and why. Much of the conventional wisdom and preconceived notions are more conventional wisdom that empirically based on reality and facts. Mohammed Emwazi previously known as ‘Jihad John’ an educated middle class British citizen who became notorious for beheading Western aid workers and journalists in Syria surprised many who saw an educated Westernized person with no history of radical views.2 The stereotypes about terrorists include faulty assumptions about sanity, a history of anti social behavior, poverty, or drug and alcohol abuse.3 More often than not, terrorist groups use these assumptions to their benefit. Among the many assumptions about level of education, wealth, and ethnic background inevitably has also been that of gender.

Extreme violence rose to unprecedented levels in 2014, leading to a dramatic increase of grave violations against children. Children have been disproportionately affected and were often the direct targets of acts of violence intended to inflict maximum casualties, terrorize entire communities and provoke worldwide outrage.

The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) recently shocked the world by destroying a number of archaeological sites throughout the region under its control, among which were the ancient Assyrian cities of Nineveh and Nimrud. Determined to impose its culture as the dominant one in the region, Daesh – the Arabic equivalent of ISIS – calls for the destruction of all cultural property of other religious groups, as well as Islamic artefacts it considers haram or forbidden in Islam, such as religious shrines and art depicting human faces. In reality, the trade in looted artefacts from Syria and Iraq to the rest of the world represents a major source of income for the terrorist group.

As suggested by the sociologist Luigi Manconi, Roma people1 are unpleasant to many people and there is no doubt that some of them live committing crimes and inducing their children to beg. Although the Roma, like everyone else, are accountable for their actions, other factors have concurred to shape this situation. This article analyses the effectiveness and the outcome reached by the different policy measures towards Roma people adopted by the Italian Government since the spring of 2008.

The role that communities play in relation to violent extremism is controversial. On the one hand, communities might be viewed as possibly supporting or endorsing violent extremism, on the other hand, communities might be seen as helping to prevent or challenge violent extremism. There is also a wider question about what ‘community’ is, and whether its ill-defined nature means that it is ill-advised to use this as a unit of analysis. These varying positions reflect some of the complexities when trying to design and implement initiatives involving non-state actors and organisations to counter violent extremism.

News headlines and television clips provide ample evidence of the military side of the ‘war on terror’: bombing raids against Islamic State fighters in Iraq, special forces incursions in Somalia, or ground operations against Islamist rebels in northern Mali. The killings of civilians by such insurgents generally provide the justification for forceful action.

The foreign fighters phenomenon is currently omnipresent on the agenda of police officers, prosecutors, de-radicalisation experts, researchers, policy makers, municipalities, governments, international organisations and think tanks. The problem is too complex and multi-faceted to analyse in just a few pages. Therefore, the following article, based on a speech presented to the Council of Europe’s Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy on 16 March 2015, should merely be seen as a quick and elementary snap-shot, providing some basic features of the current problem.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine influences not only the Middle East region but the entire world. Many initiatives have been undertaken during the years to bring peace, give hope and alleviate the suffering of the people in conflict zones. However, even if political solutions are important, they are not effective if there is not trust and reconciliation among the population. Sport is an extremely powerful element to bring young people together, to help them create harmony and bring down the barriers of diversity. This project wishes to be a support in creating the conditions necessary to constitute a platform of reconciliation and education towards young people through football.

The rise of racism in Europe In recent years online racism has seen a quick and serious growth in many European and non-European countries, till to become a worrying global phenomenon. One of the most striking examples of such process is the rise of White Supremacist Movements online. Their strategy mainly consists in disguising their hidden political agenda and attempting to subvert and destroy civil rights by presenting their standpoints through an overturn of the rhetoric of the civil rights movement. Undoubtedly, the increasing racism which is rotten in hidden racist expressions, is exploiting “favorable” conditions as the financial crisis, the increase of social conflicts and the rise of populist issues in politics. In Italy, as an example, UNAR, the Italian national anti-discrimination Office, documented that complaints for online racism weighed for 30.9% of the overall cases involving the media (UNAR, 2013). Similar situations also occurred in other European countries such as Slovenia, Finland, Hungary and United Kingdom, as it emerged by part of the research carried out within the framework of the European project LIGHT ON. Nowadays, racist claims are often hidden under a subtle and sophisticated rethoric. In fact, a huge amount of disguised racist contents is currently published on the Internet in form of occasional bigotry or individuals’ outburst, whereas they are, as a matter of fact, intended to foster racist attitudes among people and to support the “normalization” of racism. Some scholars defined as “common sense racism” or “rational racism” talking against immigrants, refugees, minority members (as well as homosexuals and disabled) as undesirable and avoiding to be labeled as “racist”.

Perfect accomplice of eco-criminals, corruption allows those involved in illegal activities in the environmental field to make significant profits at the expense of the environment and citizens. Exploiting essential and inalienable goods of the community, the so-called phenomenon of “green corruption” represents a particularly serious form of corruption. In fact, illicit activities regarding the environmental sector pose a major threat to the preservation of the environment and to the health and safety of citizens, but also have a disastrous impact on the economy. With a view to fill the knowledge gap on the relationship between corruption and environmental crimes, UNICRI initiated the research “Green Corruption - The case in Italy”. The research provides an accurate view on the phenomenon in the specific case of Italy; thanks to the important cooperation of many Italian law enforcement and judicial institutions, it analyses some of the many and various investigations conducted by the main Italian law enforcements agencies involved in the fight against corruption, environmental crimes and other related illegal activities. The research also provides an accurate overview of the relevant legal framework and mechanisms and presents some of the initiatives aimed at preventing and repressing environmental corruption.

The fourth plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee ended on 24 October 2014. For the first time in the history of China this important party session was devoted to the rule of law. Considering that the country is ruled according to the one-party system without separation of powers, the event has led many to hope that time has come for China to initiate her path toward constitutionalism and democracy.